Nostalgia & History > Conrock industrial switchers in Azusa, CA 1983 (SP Azus

Looking through a box of roster shots recently, I found a couple of slides of locomotives owned by the Consolidated Rock quarry in the northwest portion of Azusa, CA in 1983. At one point, the quarry had rail operations - and connected with the Southern Pacific Azusa Branch west of Todd Avenue near the Irwindale/Azusa border. My fellow teenaged brother and I got these shots just by walking through a hole in the fence along Todd early that year. The quarry is now run by Vulcan Materials, and I believe all the rails within the facility are gone. Business parks now line the eastern border of the property along Todd Avenue where these shots were taken.

First up is GE 44 or 45 tonner #1969 looking northeast with the San Gabriel mountains in the background, in April 1983.

These are also the first scans with my semi-new Epson 3170 scanner set at 3200 dpi resolution. I'll have to ask 3rdswitch for advice on getting the most out of it, since the scans he has posted with his are excellent.

Rich

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The next shot is of Conrock #1833, looking west on the morning of February 1, 1983 at roughly the same location as the previous one. I'm not sure of the model of this switcher, but I don't think it had run in a while when my brother took this shot.

Photo by Gary Sugg, from my collection.

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Rich:

Good thing you two captured some of the past in San Gabriel Valley history!

Thanks for sharing... once again.

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

Wow! That brings back memories.

My dad was a sales manager for ConRock during the Fifties and early Sixties - back when it was Consolidated Rock Products Company and the trucks were painted orange and green like these two locomotives.

I have vivid memories of (at least) one saddle tank engine at the Irwindale pit, plus one of the diesels at the Sun Valley pit. My dad used to arrange for me to get an occasional ride on the Sun Valley engine while they were loading hoppers.

That GE unit is the same one that was used in Sun Valley. Always wondered what happened to it.
Here is my webpage for the Sun Valley pit. http://www.geocities.com/espee9164/conrock.html

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PasadenaSub Wrote:
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> The next shot is of Conrock #1833, looking west on
> the morning of February 1, 1983 at roughly the
> same location as the previous one. I'm not sure
> of the model of this switcher, but I don't think
> either one was operational when we photographed
> them.
>
> Photo by Gary Sugg, from my collection.

Looks like a 35 Ton GE ? If so it dates to about 1936 ( looking for my critter book)

PasadenaSub Wrote:

> First up is GE 44 or 45 tonner #1969 looking
> northeast with the San Gabriel mountains in the
> background, in April 1983.

It's too big to be a 45 ton, and 44 tonners lacked end walkways. Using Jay Reed's _Critters, Dinkys, and Centercabs_ as a guide, ot looks to be a Phase III-A1 65 tonner, vintage 1950 or so.

The other one looks like a GE 45 ton off-center cab.

According to Locomotive Notes #1969 is a GE 65t as also can be seen by the thicker deck plate, as for their #1833 it was a rare O.C.C. Off Center Cab GE 45t ex Army. For a while the GE 65t could be seen at the Conrock/Vulcan materials equipment storage yard in Irwindale, sitting up on blocks, by walking along the UP Azusa branch, not far from where #1833 used to load hoppers of rock. Tom

goalco Wrote:

> as for their #1833 it was a rare O.C.C. Off Center Cab GE
> 45t ex Army.

I tried to resist using the initials OCC. I could just see Paul Sr. busting Paulie's chops to finish the tank for the quarry-theme build on "American Critter."

I just found some shots of theseOff Center cab units on pageGE-191 of the Second Diesel Spotters Guide Also on page GE-147 is the unit I confused this with A 1936 order for ten very similar looking units

Bruce Petty has an interesting page about it.

http://www.geocities.com/espee9164/conrock.html

I used to see one of those switchers on the Conrock property near the south fence while driving along Foothill Blvd just east of Irwindale Ave. It sat there for several years that I know of, but I never stopped to shoot it. I think Steve Gartner published or posted photos of it before

Consolidated Rock donated a saddle tank steam engine to Traveltown in Los Angeles' Griffith Park.